


communion of the infinite

by possibilityleft



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Extra Treat, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-19 20:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2402015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia meets all of the pilots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	communion of the infinite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



> After seeing the link in your signup, I had to write this treat!

Leia meets all of the pilots. The rest of the prep time is just a blur to her, but she's careful to remember them. A lot of people have died as part of the Rebellion, people she never got to meet who gave everything, and other people who weren't asked to participate, and died anyway. It's important to her that she meets everyone she can. On Hoth while they were planning, she made the acquaintance of everyone from the high brass to the janitorial staff. Any politician worth her salt is good with names, but this is something more, deep down in herself. When she wakes from nightmares, there is always a name on her lips. It is usually a different name each time.

There is only one female pilot on Luke's squad, which doesn't surprise Leia. They have to work twice as hard, she knows. Her father told her the same thing when she was a child, dreaming of being a Senator. Leia did, and so did this woman. Her handshake is warm and steady. Her hair is plastered to her forehead because of the helmet she'd been wearing, checking the equipment. She holds it comfortably under one arm.

"Chandler," the woman says in introduction.

Leia doesn't want to wish her luck -- that seems passe. And any kind of hokey encouragement speech won't be helpful either. She smiles. "Thank you for your service," Leia says. 

"Service? It's a downright pleasure, ma'am," Chandler says. "I will shoot down Tie fighters by the dozen if that will end the Empire. It's about time they started feeling the pain they cause everyone else."

Leia doesn't know Chandler's story and she won't ask for it. People tell her if they want to. Otherwise she just has to wonder. All the stories are the same underneath; the Empire breaks and crushes without notice or repentance. Their grasp is too large to feel the pinpricks of rage people shoot back. If this mission succeeds, they will feel a lot more than a pinprick. And those are lives that Leia is responsible for too, but she can only imagine rows of faceless Storm Troopers, identical and unsympathetic. She can't see them off the job on poker night or hushing their babies. She refuses to, because she has too many nightmares already, and she knows that most of them are just doing their jobs.

"It's about time we stop them from hurting everyone else," Leia says, and Chandler nods. There's a radio crackle in the helmet and Chandler has to go do more flight checks. Leia moves on to the next pilot. She will be able to name them as their ships go down or limp back to base after severe damage. Chandler is the third one to die, but Leia loses track not long after that, caught up in the melee.

They win, somehow, and Leia spends the evening in a rush of joy, dancing with Han and Luke and daring to dream about the future. The Empire will not dissolve instantly, but for the first time, she can feel the sun setting on it. 

She gets a little tipsy, and it brings out the power in her more than she expected. She is a Force-sensitive, mostly untrained, and she's not sure if that means she will be able to regularly see ghosts, but out of the corner of her eye, she can see them -- millions of people, still and silent among the trees, watching the living. All of the people who have died in her cause, and because of it.

She hopes they like what they see.


End file.
